Youth Studies: Bulletin of the National Clearinghouse for Youth Studies, v.9 n.4 Summer 1990 (December 1990)

To leisure or not to leisure, by Elery Hamilton-Smith
Youth Studies: Bulletin of the National Clearinghouse for Youth Studies, 1990 v.9 n.4, pp.12-18.

In raising questions and issues about the significance of leisure policy and programs, Elery Hamilton-Smith argues that the youth affairs sector, having descended from a heritage in which youth activities were leisure-centred, has in recent years improperly ignored or at best under-valued the place of leisure. This, he says, is due at least in part to a simplistic notion of the role of leisure - seeing leisure programs as trivial and simply diversionary in character (which they may sometimes be).

Boredom in suburbia, by Fred Brumhead, Mark Searle, Roger Trowbridge & Bronwyn Williams
Youth Studies: Bulletin of the National Clearinghouse for Youth Studies, 1990 v.9 n.4, pp.19-23.

Following on from the definitions of leisure discussed in the previous paper, the authors here evaluate those leisure concepts as they apply to the issue of 'bored' urban youth and the responses of youth workers to that boredom.

Planning local services for rural young people, by Bruce McKenzie
Youth Studies: Bulletin of the National Clearinghouse for Youth Studies, 1990 v.9 n.4, pp.24-26.

This study of a rural local government area in Victoria raises several points for consideration in service planning for young people including young people's inability to articulate their problems and desires, their need for information exchange and for patient encouragement to participate.

Ambivalent leisure: Youth, class and coercion, by Howard Sercombe
Youth Studies: Bulletin of the National Clearinghouse for Youth Studies, 1990 v.9 n.4, pp.27-31
Is leisure a liberating or constraining experience for our youth? In this article Howard Sercombe suggests that leisure is indeed liberating for the advantaged but is increasingly coercive for the most disadvantaged. The author calls on local government to take up the challenge of responding to the recreation and leisure needs of their young constituents.

Tracking teenagers in time and space, by John L. Cotterell
Youth Studies: Bulletin of the National Clearinghouse for Youth Studies, 1990 v.9 n.4, pp.32-37.

Common, large-scale surveys of youth leisure time can supply only general information about recreational activities. Using a different approach, however, John Cotterell describes here how more practical information about the location, timing and duration of youth activities can be revealed through "behaviour setting" research and "behaviour tracking" interviews.

Youth researching youth, by Christine Alder & Danny Sandor
Youth Studies: Bulletin of the National Clearinghouse for Youth Studies, 1990 v.9 n.4, pp.38-42.

Involving young people in a research project which is about young people can add an important dimension to the project itself. As related here through the experience of Christine Alder and Danny Sandor, the extra time needed to employ young people in research work was a worthwhile investment for all concerned.

Students', teachers' and parents' perceptions of school life, by William Ramsay & Eugene Clark
Youth Studies: Bulletin of the National Clearinghouse for Youth Studies, 1990 v.9 n.4, pp.43-50.

In an earlier article (YSA vol.7 n.3, 1988) William Ramsay and Eugene Clark explained the educational significance of social capital - the network of values, beliefs and expectations shared by a school community of parents, teachers and students. Drawing on this concept, they completed an intensive study of St Mary's College, a Catholic girls' school in Hobart, Tasmania. This article reports findings from an extract of the study which incorporated a comparison of perceptions of students, teachers and parents regarding their "expectations of school", and which provides an empirical measure of aspects of the social capital as experienced in one Australian Catholic secondary school. The school's roles in teaching traditional academic disciplines, preparation for work, and education for leisure have been presented as examples of the compared perceptions. The findings reinforce the need for students, parents and teachers to regularly monitor the extent to which the school community truly reflects a unification of values, beliefs and shared expectations.

Transients or citizens: The economics of the transition to adulthood
Youth Studies: Bulletin of the National Clearinghouse for Youth Studies, 1990 v.9 n.4, pp.52-54.

The report provides an analysis of the costs associated with various aspects of young people's pathways to independent status as adults in Australian society. Its purpose is to draw together the available data on the cost factor and to establish a basis for further policy development within the youth sector. Transients or Citizens assesses the costs incurred by young people, including those that they have in common with the adult community.

New directions in youth research, by Youth Education Studies Centre (University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia).
Youth Studies: Bulletin of the National Clearinghouse for Youth Studies, 1990 v.9 n.4, pp.55-56.

The YES Centre conducts research in the field of youth, with special reference to education participation. Members of staff are also available for consultancies, talks and seminars and teaching programs. Wide-ranging projects on educational access, problems of attrition, handicaps to participation, and young people's financial situations have broadened the research base into a number of areas concerned with youth lifestyles and youth problems.